I recently bought a bunch of old MDC/Roundhouse Old Time cars, most of which are the 36’ truss rod cars. One of the cars puzzles me, though. It has a fishbelly frame and appears to have steel sides, but wood ends and a wood roof:
It is decorated for the 125 anniversary of the Virginia & Truckee. I was going to strip and repaint it, but I have never seen a car like this before. What is the prototype for this car?
Its a “foobie”, a made up car. The PRR, B&0 and P&R/RDG had fishbelly boxcars (among other roads) but they had a wood superstructure on a steel underframe. The B&O historical society magazine several years ago had an article about sanding down the sides and roof and covering them with scribed siding and adding details to make a B&O car. I have two of those that will eventually recieve that treatment.
If you search for “PRR XL” you can find pictures of the model the car was roughly based on.
That’s what I was afraid of…
Thanks for the info. I’ll look into that.